


Henry Stickmin | High School AU

by ThatStickmanIsASpy



Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Character Death, Friends to Lovers, Gay, I dont know what other tags to put, M/M, SO GAY, Toby is burt's brother, but i dont care, charles has adhd because i said so, dave is a cockblocker, lol, over rated AU idea, toby mack lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:34:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 20,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29059077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatStickmanIsASpy/pseuds/ThatStickmanIsASpy
Summary: [originally posted some time in September]This is a stupid AU I came up with. Because I like writing high school plots and stories. They're fun! :)
Relationships: Charles Calvin & Ellie Rose & Henry Stickmin, Charles Calvin/Henry Stickmin, Dave Panpa & Burt Curtis
Kudos: 12





	1. A Fresh New Start

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Henry woke up and rubbed his head. “Where was that noise coming from?” he wondered. Then he realized he had set an alarm and quickly went to turn it off. He had set his alarm for 6:00am, but the clock said 6:05 am now. Henry started panicking “Oh crap!” he thought to himself. He rushed to get dressed, quickly put a bagel in the toaster, brushed his teeth, and combed his hair. Today was the first day of his sophomore year in high school! A new high school, that is! He was very excited to meet new friends and maybe, find some romance. Henry put his backpack on his back and quickly rushed outside, to wait for the bus to pick him up. His parents were asleep. The bus had finally come and Henry hopped on. There were alot of kids there, around his age. The only open seat was next to a girl with beautiful red hair, so Henry took it. As the bus took off, the girl spoke. 

“Hey, I’m Ellie. Ellie Rose!”. She said as she stuck her hand out to shake Henry’s. Henry shook her hand. “Henry Stickmin, Nice to meet you!” he responded. Ellie chuckled a bit “That’s an interesting surname!” she said. “You’re gonna love it here! I’ll be happy to give you a tour once we arrive!” Henry nodded “That sounds really nice”

The bus dropped Henry, Ellie, and their busmates off at their high school; Papir High School. “So, let me show you around! And introduce you to everyone!” said Ellie, who took Henry’s hand and skipped away. She introduced to him;

**Dave Panpa** \- The Student Hall Monitor. He doesn’t really pay attention to whether the students are carrying a hall pass or not, but when he’s called to the principal’s office he “swears he checked”

**Calvin and Konrad Bukowski** \- They’re twins and they genuinely love each other, but they do get into fights from time to time! They often get confused for one another.

**Reginald Copperbottom, Right Hand Man, and Sven Svensson** \- these 3 boys are very good friends and have made themselves into “a clan” hoping to make it a real thing in the future. They call it “The Toppat Clan” because they love top hats. They wear top hats a lot. They’ve been known to cause trouble around the school from time to time.

“So, what do you think so far?” Ellie said. Henry smiled. “You know, I actually think I’m really going to like this place!” said Henry. “I heard me and you are in the same classes?” said Ellie. Henry looked at his schedule and nodded. “Awesome!” said Ellie. “I guess we should grab our things and be on our way to class.” Henry nodded in agreement. As they grabbed their books and supplies, Henry and Ellie heard a commotion from down the hallway. They went to discover.

“Come on dork! You don’t need these!” said Reginald. He was holding up a pair of black and red headsets. “Yeah Mr.Wannabe Pilot” added the Right Hand Man. Sven Svensson added “Yeah, and the color of your shirt sucks!” The Toppat clan all laughed. “C-Come on guys, can’t you cut me some slack? This is my first day here from the middle school!” said the shorter boy the clan was picking on. “Oh come on, you’re no fun!” said Reginald. “We do this to everyone, we don’t want you singled out, right guys?” he asked for the approval of his 2 friends who nodded. 

Just as Reginald was about to smash the headset, Henry shouted from behind him “Hey!”. Reginald, surprised, turned and looked at Henry. “Who are you kid?” he said, raising an eyebrow. “Yeah!” added his 2 friends. “I’m Henry Stickmin! You better back off this kid right now, or else!” After a few seconds, Reginald and his 2 friends broke into laughter. “That is such a dumb last name to have!” yelled Sven. Henry was just about ready to beat the daylights out of them, until Dave started walking down their hallway. “Oh um, boss!” said the Right Hand Man. “The hall boy’s coming our way” Reginald looked and quickly shuffled to make it look like nothing happened. “Shit” he mumbled under his breath. He handed the headset to Henry and ran off with his best friend, Right Hand Man. “You win this round,” said Sven as he ran off with his friends. The kid that was being picked on had stars in his eyes. “Everything fine over here, newbies?” Dave said to Henry and the new kid. Henry nodded, to which Dave shrugged and walked off.

“Wow” said the kid as he walked up to Henry. “Th-That was… Amazing!” he said as Henry handed the headset back to the kid, who then put it back on his head. “Hey, it’s no biggie” shrugged Henry. “I couldn’t stand by and watch that happen to another new kid’s first day! I’m Henry. And you are?” Charles adjusted the headset on his head. “M-My name’s Charles Calvin! I just transferred here f-from the district middle school!” He couldn’t seem to keep eye contact with Henry, always looking away or fidgeting with his hands.“It’s nice to meet you, Henry.” 

“So, I heard the kids call you a wannabe pilot?” asked Henry. “Oh yeah.” Charles nodded. “My father worked as a pilot for the government! So that’s what I want to be when I grow up!” Henry smiled. “That sounds nice! I’m not sure what I want to be. Maybe I could be a bounty hunter, maybe a clan leader or I could even probably be a covert ops agent!... Or, I could just… be unemployed…” Charles smiled. And finally had some courage to make Eye contact with Henry. “W-Well” he said. “I better be getting to class. Hopefully, we can hang out for lunch?” asked Charles. Henry nodded and said, “Sounds great!” Charles smiled again and walked to his class with his books, just staring at the floor.

“So, what was all the commotion?” asked Ellie. Henry scoffed and rolled his eyes. “It was just those damn top hat kids picking on this poor guy. I’m gonna hang out with him during lunch, do you wanna join?” asked Henry. “Oh yeah! That sounds nice” nodded Ellie. “Who was the kid anyway?” Henry started walking to class with Ellie. ”I think he said his name was Charles,” Henry said. Ellie smiled. “Oh, Charles Calvin! I know that kid, we were great friends in middle school! We only got to hang out during lunch. Never found out why, but he always went to a different classroom with… different kids.”

Later that day, during lunch, Henry and Ellie were going to meet up with Charles. Ellie had packed her own lunch and so did Hen- holy shit! Henry was in such a hurry getting to school, he forgot to bring his lunch. Charles saw them walk in the cafeteria and waved his hand and yelled “Henry, Ellie!” Henry and Ellie went to sit with him. “There you guys are!” Charles said with his mouth full “I thought you guys bailed out. Henry shook his head. “No no!” I would never, and neither would Ellie!” Ellie took out her lunch and so did Charles. Henry reached in his bag to grab his out, but oh no! He just realized he forgot it. And he doesn’t have money to buy any from the school. Charles looked at Henry and tilted his head a bit. “Not hungry?” he asked. Henry shook his head. “I-it’s not that! I forgot my lunch and I don’t have any money!’ “Oh!” Charles replied. There was silence for a few seconds and then Charles started digging in his coat pockets. 

He pulled out a 10 dollar bill and handed it to Henry. Henry’s eyes widened. He tried pushing Charles’ hand away. “No, Charles, I can’t take this.” Henry said. “Please.” asked Charles. “It’s the very least I can do, you really saved my bacon back there!” Henry looked at the bill then back at Charles. “Are… you sure?” asked Henry. Charles nodded. “Please.” After a few moments of hesitation, Henry took the bill and got in the lunch line, allowing Charles and Ellie to catch up.

Henry came back with a tray of what seemed to be decent food. For sure better than the food from Henry’s old high school. Henry sat at the table and handed the change back to Charles. Charles shook his head “No, you can keep it.” It was only $3. Henry didn’t know why this kid was being so nice to him, All he did was get his headset back for him. “So Henry,” Ellie said. “Charles and I were just discussing heading over to his place for dinner. Wanna join?” she asked. Wow, Henry has never been invited to stay at someone else's place for dinner before. Henry nodded frantically. “Sure! I would love to!” said Henry. Charles smiled a bit as he sipped his water. “Great,” he said. “Mom already told me earlier today that I could invite 4 friends over for dinner. So you guys can come whenever! The Bukowski twins will be coming over too. Those 2 are kinda my besties.” Charles still made 0 effort to make any eye contact with Henry, or Ellie. Henry just smiled. “Thanks for inviting us!” Ellie added in “yeah, thanks!” Charles smiled back at them, that’s just kind of his way of saying “thank you”.

So, Adding to our student list, we have;

**Henry Stickmin** \- A kind and caring individual, willing to take a stand and help out anyone who needs it.

**Ellie Rose** \- A happy go-friendly girl who is always happy to give you the solutions to your problems.

  
**Charles Calvin** \- An awkward, yet very compassionate young man, who aspires to become a government pilot when he grows up.


	2. Dinner at Charles'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henry and Ellie go to have Dinner with Charles

After school Ended, Henry came back home and went straight to his room to get ready for dinner with his new friend tonight! Ellie’s older brother was going to pick up Henry and Ellie and drop them off. Henry blow dried his hair, brushed it, and put on a nice dress shirt he had for special occasions. He heard honking outside his house. So, he quickly buttoned his shirt and ran outside. 

He looked for the car and saw a silver 2005 Honda SUV. He got inside and sat in the backseat. Ellie’s brother was driving and his girlfriend was in the front next to him. “Hey Henry!” greeted Ellie. She was wearing a nice dress with a necklace. “This is my older brother, Elias and his girlfriend, Jane.” Elias waved at Henry. “Nice to meet ya little dude!” he gave Henry a fistbump. He then set up his GPS and started driving away to Charles’ house, which was just a few blocks away.

When they got to the house, Henry and Ellie stepped out. “Okay, so I’ll come pick you up at 9, okay little sis?” Said Elias. Ellie nodded “Yeah! Sounds great!” Elias smiled and said “Okay, you love birds have fun!” before pulling his window up and driving off. “Lovebirds?” asked Henry. “H-He doesn’t really think we’re dating, right?” Ellie rolled her eyes and shook her head. “He just likes playing around like that.” she said. Henry sighed in relief. They looked at the house they were dropped off at. It was a big 2 story home. It had a 2 car garage, a nice big backyard, and a nice patio on the 2nd floor. “Wow, guess his mother’s a lawyer of sorts!” Henry chuckled. Ellie rang the doorbell and suddenly, they heard 2 dogs barking, which startled Henry and Ellie.

A tall woman answered the door. “Oh you must be Charlie’s friends?” she asked. Ellie nodded “Yep! I’m Ellie and this is Henry!” Henry waved. Charles’ mom shook both their hands. “It is so wonderful to meet you! Please come in! I will be cooking dinner in a few.” Henry and Ellie walked inside, immediately greeted by a border collie and a pomeranian, who started jumping at them, panting. It almost seemed like they wanted to hug them hello. “Bonbon, Allie, sit!” commanded Charles’ mother. The dogs wouldn’t stop trying to “hug” Henry and Ellie. “I’m sorry about them,” said Charles’ mom. “They don’t bite, don’t worry! They just get really excited and friendly when we have guests!” She pointed to the border collie “This is Bonbon!” then, she pointed to the pomeranian. “And this is Allie!”

Henry and Ellie both pet the dogs, as they finally settled down, sat, and wagged their tails. “Are you guys allergic to anything?” asked Charles’ mother. Henry and Ellie both shook their heads no. “Alright then.” said Charles’ mother. “Anything in particular you would like to eat? Charlie wanted me to make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, but if you want something else, I can make it for you.” she smiled. Henry and Ellie shook their heads no again. “I actually love spaghetti!” said Henry. “Me too!” added Ellie. “Great!” smiled Charles’ mom. “Thank you so much for having us over, Ms. Charles’ mom!” said Ellie. “Oh, please.” she replied. “You can call me Ms. Calvin” Henry and Ellie nodded in agreement. “Charles is up in his room with his friends if you want to see him” Ms. Calvin told Henry and Ellie. The duo walked up stairs.

There were 3 doors in the hallway, 2 were bedrooms and 1 was a bathroom. They knew which one was Charles because they could hear the laughter coming from his room. Charles was playing “Never Have I Ever” with the Bukowski Twins. Henry knocked on his room door. Charles answered. He seemed a tad bit nervous, but not too much now that he’s gotten to know Henry and Ellie a bit. “Hi Henry! Hi Ellie” said Charles, as he lightly hugged Henry and Ellie. “We were just playing “Never have I ever. Wanna play with us?” Ellie and Henry nodded. “Sure!” said Ellie. Ellie and Henry sat down, next to 2 kids who looked almost exactly the same, the only difference being one of them has brown eyes and the other one has heterochromia, one brown eye and one blue eye. 

“Oh, let me introduce you to my best friends!” smiled Charles. He put his head on the brown eyed kid’s head. “This is Calvin!” he said. He then put his hand on the heterochromatic kid’s head. “And this is Konrad!” Both the orange haired kids smiled and waved at Henry and Ellie. They spoke in unison “Hello!” Wonderful to meet you!” 

A few minutes later, they were all laughing. “Okay okay!” said Henry as he caught his breath. “My turn! Never have I ever… Kissed a girl on the lips.” Calvin and Konrad both raised their hands. “Ewww, you guys are yucky!” joked Ellie as she laughed. “Hey!” said Calvin. “It was MY girlfriend, but then she had to cheat on me for Konrad! Konrad rolled his eyes “We’re identical twins, Calvin! It was probably an accident.” Calvin got a bit angry. “But she knows that I’m the one with 2 brown eyes!” Konrad gasped “How dare you!” he said. Henry laughed. Just as Ellie’s turn came up…

“Okay guys, dinner is ready!” yelled Ms. Calvin from the dining room downstairs. 

Konrad and Calvin, in unison, yelled “OH BOY, SPAGHETTI!!” and they both ran down the stairs together to get their dinner. Charles, Ellie, and Henry got up. Charles held open his door for Ellie and Henry. “A-After you!” he said. Ellie went through and down the stairs. Henry smiled and said “Thank you” to Charles as he followed Ellie. Charles smiled and walked down the stairs too. He wasn’t as fast as the other kids going down the stairs, being very,  _ VERY _ slightly more heavyset, 

He sat across from where his mom would be sitting at the dinner table. Henry and Ellie sat next to eachother, across from Konrad and Calvin. Ms. Calvin served them their dinner. As she served Konrad and Calvin their dinner, she said “Here you go Calvin, this one has no tomato sauce on it!” because Calvin had a tomato allergy. However, she set the sauce-less plate in front of Konrad instead and gave Calvin the normal plate. She still didn’t get quite the hang of telling who is who. Calvin and Konrad swapped plates. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” said Ms. Calvin “It’s alright, no worries!” said Calvin as he and his brother began to stuff their mouths with food. Charles started digging in as soon as he got his plate. Henry and Ellie took a first bite and immediately, they were in love… with the food. “Mmm! This is wonderful!” said Ellie. Henry was too busy enjoying the food to say anything. “Like it?” said Ms. Calvin. “It was my husband’s old recipe! “Thank you Ms. Calvin!” said the Bukowski twins in unison. “Yeah, thank you!” said Ellie. Henry also said “thank you” as he finished his plate. Charles was done like, a minute before everyone else. “Thank you so much mom!” he said. He got up from his chair. “I want to show you guys something, I’ll be right back!” said Charles as he ran off and up to his room. The Bukowski brothers followed him. Ms. Calvin smiled. “Hey, thank you guys so much for being friends with Charlie!” she said. “Hey, it’s no problem, your son’s really nice!” said Henry. Ellie nodded her head in agreement. “He usually has a difficult time making new friends” said Ms. Calvin.

“What do you mean?” asked Henry. “Well” sighed Ms Calvin. “He has a bit of a… disorder, if you know what I’m saying.” Ellie Nodded “Ohh, I know just what you’re talking about. Why he always went to different classes than me? The reason he won’t look me or Henry in the eyes?” Ms. Calvin nodded. “Yes… Not only am I worried about him being bullied around the other students, I’m worried because he wants to be a helicopter pilot so bad when he grows up. I don’t know if the government will hire someone with his condition, even with how… faint… it is…” Ellie put an arm around Henry “Well, you won’t need to worry about the bullies, you should have seen Henry defend him earlier today!... of course, I wasn’t there to see what happened, but I do know those kids ran off when Henry showed up!” She gave Henry a “friendly noogie” “Yeah!” smile Henry. “I’m sure he’ll be able to become a pilot once he’s an adult! Besides, If they don’t hire him, I’ll make them hire him!” Henry said jokingly. Ms. Calvin smiled. Happy that Charles had friends who are happy to be with him.

“Would you 2 like to stay the night?” asked Ms. Calvin. “Calvin and Konrad will be staying the night, if you want to stay, I can call your parents and let them know. I’ll drive the 5 of you to school tomorrow and we’ll even drive through somewhere to get breakfast. Henry smiled and said “That sounds awesome!” Ellie agreed. “I’ll call my brother and tell him not to come pick me up tonight!” she said. “I’ll call my mom too so she can let dad know!” said Henry. “Great!” said Ms. Calvin.

Charles came back down stairs. Calvin carried Bonbon and Konrad carried Allie. They both had little doggy dresses on them, their fur was brushed, and they had bows on them. “Ta-da!” said Charles. “They’re pretty now!” Bonbon and Allie wagged their tails. They loved it when Charles dressed them up. “Aww” said Henry and Ellie in unison. Bonbon and Allie got out of Calvin and Konrad’s grips and jumped onto Ellie and Henry and started licking their cheeks. Charles and the brothers laughed a bit before getting the dogs off them. “Charlie” said Ms. Calvin. “Your other 2 friends will be staying here for the night too!” Charles smiled. “Wow! Really? That’s awesome, I’ll go set up 2 more sleeping bags!” Charles said as he rushed back upstairs.

Later, after washing their plates and changing into their pajamas, Charles, Konard, Calvin, Henry, and Ellie got into their sleeping bags and got ready to sleep. Bonbon and Allie laid down besides Charles. “Good night you guys!” Ms. Calvin said as she switched the light switch off. “Good night Ms. Calvin!” the boys and Ellie all said in unison. Ms. Calvin closed the door. Suddenly, Charles started snickering a bit. He mumbled the word “peepee” and everyone in the room bursted out into laughter. Ms. Calvin heard this from her room. She just smiled and shook her head.

After laughing themselves nearly to death, everyone in that room was fast asleep, dreaming away.


	3. The Triple Threat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The kids decide to start bands!

The car drove down the road, to somewhere not familiar or known. The person in the car looked… familiar. Suddenly, another car, a nice Mercedes, came and slammed into the side of the car, making it lose control. The car sped up, trying to get away from the Mercedes, but then the car drove in front of an oncoming train. It was a gruesome wreck. The people inside the Mercedes, Henry knew just who they were…

Henry suddenly felt someone shake his leg. “Henry!” said the voice. “Come on, get up! It’s time to get ready for school! We’re going to start our clubs today!” said Ellie as Henry woke up, stretched and yawned. He was the only person in the room apart from Ellie. All the sleeping bags were put away except for Henry’s. Henry got up and put his sleeping bag away. He walked downstairs with Ellie. Charles and the Bukowski twins were sitting on the couch, waiting for Henry and Ellie to get ready to leave. Ellie went to the bathroom to get dressed first. Henry waited.

“I-I hope you had fun!” said Charles to Henry. Henry looked back and nodded. “I did, I really did! Thank you again for inviting me over.” Charles looked away to watch the TV. “You’re welcome,” he softly said. Ellie walked out the bathroom, wearing her school clothes, with a school jacket. “Alright, Your turn!” said Ellie as Henry grabbed his suitcase and walked in to get ready. Ellie stood by the bathroom dor. Sighing. She stared down at the floor, with a smile on her face, her cheeks rosy red. She had just met this Henry kid, but he was just so… dreamy. 

Charles and the twins were talking about what clubs they were going to join today. “Okay so from what I heard, you can pick 2 other partners in the music club.” said Charles. “I really want to do it, so I was thinking the 3 of us could have our own little band together?” Charles asked the twins. “Sorry” said Calvin “But we’re already grouping with Dave.” Konrad nodded in agreement “Yeah, he asked us if he could group with us in the club after he lost his hall monitor job. He paid absolutely no attention to who had a hall pass and who didn’t” Charles sighed. “Oh… well maybe Henry and Ellie would like to group up with me!” Henry came out of the bathroom, he didn’t dress up special, just some jeans and a t-shirt. “Is everyone ready to leave?” asked Ms. Calvin. All the kids in unison said “Yes!” so, they all got in the fancy big 6-seat SUV Charles’ mom had, with Charles sitting in the front. They drove off. 

Ellie was sitting next to Henry. God, his shiny green eyes and his gorgeous hair. Ellie just felt so weird around Henry. They’ve only known each other a little over 24 hours but already, Ellie was getting butterflies in her stomach. In the far back seat was Calvin and Konrad. They were arguing a bit over what their band name should be. “It should be called Calvin and the Cows!” argued Calvin. “No, I think “Konrad and his annoying twin brother” sounds better!” replied Konrad. Henry wanted the twins to shut up before he had to make them. “How about the 3 muskrats.” suggested Henry, sarcastically. Calvin and Konrad, unironically, thought of this as a good idea. They stopped fighting and hugged each other. “I’m sorry,” said Calvin. Konrad hugged his brother and cried “I’m sorry too.” he said.

So, after driving through Burger King and getting some yummy breakfast sandwiches, Ms. Calvin dropped off the 5 kids at school. Charles gave his mom a hug before walking off. As they went into the school, they passed the student parking lot. They saw Sven and his 2 friends get out of a Mercedes, with smoke exiting as well. No doubt about it, they were either vaping or smoking. Ellie whispered to Henry. “Should I tell?” she asked. Henry shook his head no, knowing it wasn’t the best idea. Who knows what the “toppat” kids would do if they found out they were ratted on.

The 2nd assignment class was replaced with club meetups. During that period, the students would be participating in said clubs for an hour and a half. This would be every Thursday. Right now, they were doing their first period; History. As said before, Charles doesn’t attend the same classes as his friends, but he is learning the same subject. They mainly talked about America’s history and how it came to be. Such as what was the first colony to join the union as a state and which war led to American freedom. It was very boring, but it was an essential subject if the students were going to graduate from high school.

What seemed like hours finally passed and the students that were attending clubs walked to their classrooms that hosted each club. Almost every student was in a club, apart from the toppat kids and a good handful of students. Henry, Ellie, Charles, The Twins, Dave, and about 6 other students walked in the music club room. “Welcome to Music Club!” said the music teacher as he sat down. “Why don't we start off with introductions? Group up and when I call on you, tell me the name of your band!”

Oh shit. Henry, Ellie, and Charles forgot to pick a name.

Excluding them, in the band list was;

The 3 Muskrats - Calvin, Konrad, and Dave

Shattered Hearts - 3 of the emo kids.

Red Robbers - 3 kids who no one knew existed until this point in time.

“And what is the name of your group?” The teacher asked. The 3 kids looked nervous, until Henry blurted to the teacher “The Triple Threat.” All the kids looked at Henry, Charles, Ellie, and then at each other, discussing how awesome of a band name it was. “Wonderful name!” commented the teacher. Ellie patted Henry on the back, which seemed to startle him a bit “Awesome thinking dude!” she whispered to him.

First to practice was The 3 Muskrats. Dave played the synthesizer and sang. Calvin played the drums, and Konrad played the electric guitar. Konrad strummed his guitar and Dave pressed 3 keys on the synthesizer, but no noise came from the synthesizer and the sound from the electric guitar was faint. The aux cords weren’t plugged in. “Dave!” yelled Calvin. “You were supposed to plug in the aux cords!!” Dave scoffed and went to plug them in “I could have sworn I did it, I mean, if I didn’t do it, I'd be disqualified and I do NOT want that! I’m trying to get some chicks! Dave plugged in both his and Konrad’s aux cords.

They weren't really that good at singing, or playing any instruments, but this is practice. You can’t expect any of them to be perfect yet. Don’t get me started on the emo kids singing “Teenagers” by My Chemical Romance.

Next was The Triple Threat. Henry was the drummer, Charles was a backing vocalist, and Ellie sang and played guitar. They were going to play “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen. Ellie began to sing and strum her guitar to the melody. After the whole “Cause I’m having a good time, having a good time” part, Henry started playing his drums to the beat of the music. Charles would quietly sing whenever Ellie sung a part in the song with backing vocals.

Compared to the other bands’ performances, their was actually pretty good. “Wow! you guys were amazing!” commented the music teacher. The other bands in the club agreed and clapped. Henry felt good getting some recognition, Charles was REALLY flattered, and Ellie thought to herself “I hope these buncha loonies know that one of these days, I’ll make that drummer boy mine.” A half hour later, all the school's club members were walking out of their classrooms to attend their 3rd period of the day; Algebra. 

All went to their classrooms except For Ellie. She waited for the halls to be clear, then she walked down the hall and to a door. On the door said “Principal Petrov” and below it, it said “VP Olyat” what she was going to do may seem childish for a 15 year old to do, but little did she know, it was going to make an impact.

She knocked on the door. “Come in” said a Russian voice on the other side of the door. Ellie walked inside and shut the door behind her.


	4. You're The Best!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henry and Charles hang out

Henry was in his algebra class, trying to figure out the answer for 5 2  divided by 3. Suddenly, completely out of nowhere, the fire alarm blared throughout the halls and classrooms. Henry yelped a bit, being startled by the sudden noise. He forgot about the fire drill today, he had stayed up late at Charles’ house, thinking about the dream he had about the train wreck. All of the students in his class got up and got in a single file line. Henry was the last student in line, behind the Bukowski twins. The students all walked down the hallway, each classroom line keeping their distance from each other. Charles and his classroom were in their line, following the other students. Charles was pushing his headsets against his ears, hoping to prevent the loud noise from reaching too much into his ears. 

All the classrooms were rounded up together outside. Principal Petrov was giving them a boring speech about the proper way to escape in a real emergency. Kind of ironic, you wouldn’t line up and march out of a burning building. From the corner of his eye, Henry could see Charles talking to Konrad and Calvin. He couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying because of Principal Petrov’s loud voice on the megaphone, but he saw Charles pass a note to Calvin, to which Calvin and Konrad nodded. Henry just kinda shrugged it off for now. It probably had nothing to do with him. But what if it did? Henry was so deep in his own thoughts, he barely saw the students walk back inside to continue their academics.

Henry was busy focusing on the last 3 problems in his algebra question. He saw a hand knock on his desk. It was Calvin with his brother Konrad. “Hey Hen,” said Calvin Konrad interrupted. “Charles wanted us to give this to you. We don’t know what it’s about, but he really wanted this to get to you.” Calvin left the note on Henry’s desk and walked away with his brother. Henry looked at the note, then looked around to see if there were any peekers. He opened the note.

“Hi Henry. I’m sorry I couldn’t ask in person, I was a bit nervous. I wanted to ask you if you would like to stay a night at my house again. Just you and me. You don’t have to write back yes or no, you can just stop by the house.”

“From, Charles. :)”

Henry smiled a bit as he put the note away in his jeans pocket. He knew indeed he was going to come.

3 hours later, the school day was finally over and the dismissal bell rang. Everyone was sitting outside, waiting for their transportation to come. 

Everyone except for the toppat kids and 3 or 4 other kids weren’t there. They went straight home. Sven drove his own Mercedes and he would drive his 2 best friends, Reginald and Right Hand Man to and from school. Trust me, Sven was spoiled rotten from his parents. The other 3-4 kids also had their own cars and drivers licenses.

Charles sat on a bench, waiting for his mom. Henry stood a few feet away. Henry looked at Charles who then looked back at Henry. Henry gave him a thumbs up, as a way of saying “yeah dude, i’ll be there a few minutes after I get home. Charles smiled, and this time, it was a big toothy smile.

Later that day, Henry’s father dropped him off at Charles’ house. Henry could hear fast footsteps running towards the door. Charles opened the door and immediately greeted Henry with a hug. He never did that to him before. “Hi Henry!!” said Charles with such a happy tone, Bonbon and Allie also greeting Henry. “Mom’s gonna order us pizza and make mac and cheese tonight” Henry smiled at the thought. He had this dinner almost every night when he was little. Charles grabbed Henry’s hand and ran up to his room with him. Henry was a bit startled, but just went with it. Charles seemed very excited. 

As they walked inside Charles’ room, Charles showed Henry something really amazing he had just gotten; his own brand new cellphone, sitting on his nightstand on the charger. “Wow!” exclaimed Henry. The phone was really nice and expensive looking. “Pretty neat huh?” asked Charles as he took the phone off the charger and let Henry have a look, with his eyes. Henry smiled. “Hey, now that you have a phone, I can give you my phone number so that way, you won't have to get Calvin to give me a note in the middle of class!” Henry chuckled a bit. “Oh, absolutely!” Charles agreed as he went through the phone settings to find his phone number. Henry and Charles then exchanged phone numbers and added each other into their contacts. Then, they put their phones away to spend time with each other in person. “So I was thinking while the pizza is being delivered and mom’s making the Mac and Cheese, we could play Guess Who!” Charles said. “Does that sound fun?” Henry nodded in agreement. “I used to play that game all the time in kindergarten!” Charles’ eyes grew wide. “No really? So did I!” he said while smiling.

The 2 boys were up in the room, playing the game and chatting about their music club performance. “I know who your character is!” said Henry. Charles let out a small laugh. “Really? Who?’ Henry flipped down one last panel and showed Charles his game board with only one panel erected. “David” Charles took the character card out of the slot and showed it to Henry “Rats! It was David!” both the boys laughed, Then, Charles’ mom knocked on the door. “Boys, pizza is here!” she said to them. Charles, who may I tell you, loves pizza, ran downstairs with Henry to get himself a slice with some mac and cheese. As Charles was getting himself some pizza and Mac and Cheese, he thought of something. “Hey mom, can me and Henry sit in the living room to eat? I wanna watch a movie with him!” asked Charles. “Oh of course!” replied Ms. Calvin. “As long as you clean up after yourselves afterwards!” she added. Henry and Charles rushed into the living room. “I know just what movie we can watch!” said Charles. “Watch my food real quick!” he sat his plate down in front of Henry while he went to start the movie. “Man” Henry thought to himself. “I’ve known this kid for only 2 days. I could barely hear him when he talked to me, now the whole world can hear him. I guess the kid gets used to people fast.” Charles started the movie, rushed to the couch, jumped, and plopped down on it, making Henry jump off the seat a tiny bit.

Charles grabbed his plate and started digging in on his pizza, the dogs sitting in front of him, begging for a bite. Henry, not being too hungry, broke off pieces of his pizza and let the dogs eat it. The movie started, they were going to watch Wall-e. This was Charles’ favorite movie. “H-Hey Hen?” said Charles. “Yeah?” said Henry. Charles started fidgeting with his hands. “I-I know this may be a bit soon to say, but I think you’re one of the bestest friends I’ve had apart from the twins.” Henry’s eyes widened and he smiled. “Thank you, Charles.” he said. “You know Charles, you’re one of the only kids who’s bothered to try and be my friend. I would always just be brushed off or ignored.” Charles nodded his head as he took a bite of Mac and Cheese. When he was done swallowing it, he added “I feel the exact same way. I had no friends until the twins came to school.” Henry just kind of “ohh’d” in sympathy. “But now that me, you, and Ellie are friends and even part of a school band, I have more friends now!” said Charles as he smiled. For once, his headset was around his neck, Henry noticed.

“Why aren’t you wearing them?” asked Henry. Charles tilted his head. “Wearing w-” he then realized what Henry was talking about and decided to tease him. “To hear the movie silly! Besides, these are wireless headphones, and I don't have any music playing.” Henry chuckled a bit as him and Charles settled down to watch the movie.

Meanwhile at Sven’s mansion, Sven was with his 2 friends, and they were drinking some expensive alcohol. Remember when I said Sven was spoiled rotten? I was not exaggerating, Anything he wanted, he would get it Of course, if his parents found out him and his friends would be drinking, he’d be dead, but everything in his mansion, either furniture or something that someone owns, is expensive. A $4,000 77 inch TV, 6 cars (including Sven’s Mercedes) and even a pool with a diving board and a dolphin!... Well, there were no dolphins, but there were golden tiles around the pool! Charles is actually the second richest kid with Sven beating him. “I can’t believe we got ratted on for smoking! In my own car!” Sven said as he took a chug of the alcohol. “Those kids must really think we’re a pushover joke, huh?” asked Reginald. Right Hand Man just sat and thought. He came up with an idea. “We need to do something that teaches these kids not to underestimate us… Something they’ll know we did, but also something they wouldn’t dare to rat us out on.” Reginald smirked and also had an idea. “Hey Sven, how much money do you have in your allowance? “Pssh. Not much.” said Sven. “Only about $750, why?” he asked. Reginald looked to Right Hand Man, who smirked back at him. “It involves your Mercedes…” said Reginald.


	5. It's Only Day 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tragedy strikes when the Triple Threat are on their way to catch a flick

Henry’s eyes began to open as he awakened from sleeping. Charles, apparently, ended up sleeping on his lap. Henry rubbed his eyes and looked at his watch. “12:37 PM” “Oh no” Henry thought. “I’m in so much trouble!” Henry shook Charles, who woke up… and accidentally slapped Henry in the nose. “Ow!” exclaimed Henry. Charles got scared for a moment “Oh! I-I’m so sorry Henry!” he quickly got up. “Come on, we have to go to school!” Charles' mom walked in the living room. “So boys,” she said. “School was cancelled today.” What? This is only the 3rd day of school and they already have their first cancelled day? “The whole school got flooded, they don’t know how. So, I was thinking today could be a… fun day!” Ms. Calvin smiled. “What do you mean fun day?” asked Charles. “I mean, we could pick up your other friend and maybe go out to eat, go to the movies?” Charles smiled and literally jumped for joy. “Are you kidding?! That sounds awesome!! I’ll go get dressed right now!” Charles ran upstairs to take a shower and get changed. Ms. Calvin looked to Henry. “You can use our shower if you want!” she said. Henry raised an eyebrow. “Really?” he asked. Ms. Calvin pat Henry on the shoulder. “Of course! Any friend of Charlie’s is considered family in this house!” she said. Henry smiled and thanked her.

Later, after both Charles and Henry took their showers and got dressed, they got in the car as Ms. Calvin drove out of the driveway and to Ellie’s house to pick her up. A black Mercedes turned around the corner and started following the SUV. 

“Guys, I really am not looking forward to this idea. This car cost my parents a lot of money. Can’t we just shoot at the tires or something?” Sven said as he drove his car, rather recklessly. “Are you kidding?” said Reginald. “Crashing into the side will be way quieter than gunshots!” Right Hand Man nodded in agreement. “I can agree.” Sven let out a depressing groan. “Fine” he said. “But this is your idea. Should I crash into them now?” Right Hand Man stopped Sven before he could accelerate. “No!” We’re waiting for the girl! Trust me, the impact will be bigger.” Right Hand Man was busy listening to the conversation Charles, Henry, and Ms Calvin were having as they were going to pick up Ellie. He had planted a wireless microphone in the backseat cup holder.“So are you excited?” asked Henry. “Uh, YEAH! OF COURSE!!” Charles said, in a rather loud voice. He REALLY was excited. 

Sven turned the corner again as Ellie came out of her house and got in the van, to sit next to Henry. “Hi Guys, thanks for inviting me to come with you” she said as she scooted closer to Henry, who seemed a tad bit uncomfortable with how close Ellie was getting. “Alright.” said Sven. “Now we wait for the opportunity.” 

The movie theater was about 3 miles and a half away. Charles, being Charles, seemed to be growing visibly impatient. He knew him and his friends would get there soon, he was just anxious about not getting there in time. The traffic was unusually low and there were barely any other cars on this road. Sven looked back to his 2 friends. “Ready?” he asked. Right Hand Man and Reginald nodded as Sven accelerated the car and Crashed into the side, denting both doors and breaking the windows on the SUV. Ms. Calvin panicked. She tried pulling over, but the car wouldn’t stop trying to smash into the sides. She accelerated her car and drove as fast as the car could go. 

Charles and his mom were alright, but the glass that broke in the back had given Henry and Ellie some small, yet painful cuts. The van started slowing down as Sven smashed into the side one last time, drifting the car on a railroad track and into a post, breaking the windshield completely, cutting both Charles and Ms. Calvin. Just at that moment, the red lights started flashing and the barricades went down. It had to be at that moment, huh? 

“What the fuck!” exclaimed Reginald. “We weren’t supposed to kill them!” Sven yelled back “Well, what did you want me to do?!” Reginald smacked Sven on the back of the head. “You were supposed to smash them into a wall! That way, they’ll be hurt badly, but still be alive!” Sven scoffed. “Well if you had told me earlier I-” he was cut off by Right Hand Man, who jumped into the front seat and took control of the car. “Well the both of you shut up!” He sped the car away from the scene, and to the nearest mechanic.

Ms. Calvin tried starting the car, but it just wouldn’t start anymore. Smoke was already coming from the front hood. Ms Calvin tried to leave the car, but her seatbelt had gotten tangled around her when they crashed. “Kids, out! Now!” she shouted. Henry, Ellie, and Charles all unbuckled their seatbelts. Ellie grabbed Henry by the hand, kicked the door open, and ran under the barricade and stood on the sidewalk, waiting for Charles and Ms. Calvin.

Charles could leave the car right now, but he wanted to try and help his mother get untangled from the seatbelt she was trapped in. “Charlie! I need you to leave the car!! I’ll find my way out of these seat belts!” time was growing short as the train grew closer and closer, trying to come to a halt. “Mom, I’m not leaving this car until I’m able to have you come with me!” Charles argued. “That’s what heroes do, they save lives even if their own is at risk!” Charles said as he continued trying to untangle Ms. Calvin. The train was 3 seconds away from colliding with the car. With a sudden amount of strength, Ms. Calvin picked up Charles out of his seat, and tossed him out of the car through what used to be a windshield. It almost seemed like it was in slow motion as Charles skidded on the pavement, leaving abrasions on his palms and knee. Before he could try to run back to save his mom, the train slammed right into the car, and dragged it down the tracks for almost a mile before it could finally come to a halt. 

Charles sat on the pavement, and just, kind of took everything in, tears welling up in his eyes. His jaw dropped. Henry and Ellie screamed at the collision. The few cars that were on the road stopped to witness the aftermath. Henry and Ellie ran to their friend, who began sobbing and crying like a toddler. Naturally you would if you witnessed your mother die such a tragic death. Distant sirens were heard as Charles started to blackout from being greatly overwhelmed.

When he woke up, him, Henry, and Ellie were in a hospital room. They were examined and treated for their injuries. Henry and Ellie only needed a couple of bandaids for some bigger cuts they had gotten. Same thing for Charles, but he also had small gauze pads taped over the scrapes on his palms and knees. Charles couldn’t remember what happened for a minute, then it suddenly hit him and he started to sob again. Henry was the first to get up out of his chair to go and give Charles a hug. He got down to Charles’ level and hugged him while slowly patting his back. Charles hugged Henry back, but tighter. Ellie got up out of her seat and decided to join this group hug, Charles hugging the both of them really tight. Henry and Ellie started crying too. They really liked Ms. Calvin. She was just so friendly and caring towards them. She almost felt like a second mom. The doctor came in. “Oh good, you’re awake.” she said. 

“We treated your injuries, they weren’t really too major, just some cuts and scrapes. We called your parents and they’re coming to pick you up.” Just hearing the word “Parents” made Charles sob even more. He was with no father ever since he was 7, but now he was with no father and no mother. 

A few minutes later, Henry’s mom and dad and Ellie’s older brother and girlfriend rushed in and hugged Henry and Ellie. Elias was Ellie’s emergency contact since Ellie’s parents both had a very busy all day job. “Oh my goodness, are you okay?!” asked Henry’s mom, almost in tears at the thought her son could have died. “Y-yeah I’m fine mom.” said Henry as he wiped tears away from his eyes. Elias and his girlfriend hugged Ellie and comforted her. “You’re okay right Ellie?” asked Elias’ girlfriend. “Yeah, I’m totally fine!” reassured Ellie as Elijah pat her back. 

Charles sat there, with no one. A woman walked in. “Charlie?”. It was his Aunt, Morgana. Charles limped over to her and gave her a hug as he sobbed. Morgana hugged him back. “You’re going to be staying with me.” she said to Charles. Charles looked up at her. He sniffled and wiped his tears away. “W-Will I still be able to go to the high school?” Aunt Morgana sympathetically pet Charles’ back and said “Of course! I would never separate you from your friends.” Charles smiled a bit and just hugged Morgana. “Thank you.” Charles said under his breath as he sniffled and sobbed.

Charles was very lucky to have someone else in his family willing to help take care of him until adulthood. He was lucky enough also that his aunt was just as kind, caring, and compassionate as his mother.

Henry, Ellie, and Charles had no idea who caused this tragedy. They were quick to assume it was a reckless drunk driver. This was only, what was supposed to be, the 3rd day of their new school year and a kid’s mother was already killed. Things were to continue going downhill from here.


	6. It Will Be Alright

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henry goes to comfort Charles after the tragedy.

Skipping to 6 days later, within those days, bad things started happening all around the school. First, Calvin had a very severe allergic reaction when a kid (paid by the toppats, of course) gave him a bottle of hot sauce to use during lunch. The hot sauce turned out to be ketchup. If Calvin wasn’t so naive, he probably would have known before dowsing the hot dog with the stuff. Then, during P.E. the school was practicing for their yearly high school football competition. Reginald decided to throw a ball right at a girl’s head while no one was paying attention, giving her a concussion. Then the day before the present day, everyone’s lockers were filled with garbage. It would all just fall out of the locker when they opened. Kind of tame compared to the other things they were doing.

Their motives? They’re trying to show that they can’t be messed with. Trying to prove that they can cause any situation and put an innocent person to blame. They wanted their clan to become a professionally criminal organization in the future. If they killed someone, they would be living free. Not only does Sven have all his money to hire someone, but they also know how to not leave behind any prints. They were ruthless, cunning, and the most unapologetic people around.

Today was band practice again, Apart from The 3 Muskrats not being able to practice due to Calvin recovering, the other band kids sure hoped nothing could go wrong today. Ellie just kind of daydreamed about Henry as she walked to practice with her 2 friends. God, why was she in love with this boy? She’s only known him for almost a week and she’s already thinking about their wedding.

While Ellie was daydreaming about Henry, Henry was daydreaming about someone else. Someone cute, with the most awesome hair, most shiny eyes, and who’s just the kindest person around. Henry ended up hitting his head against the door as he was in his thoughts. He fell back a bit, snapping back into reality and walking in the music room.

Charles’ voice was a bit sore because ever since the tragedy, he has been crying himself to sleep. Crying really takes a toll on your throat. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too noticeable. Background singers are supposed to be quiet anyways.

So, The band performed their practice cover of “Don’t Stop me Now” by Queen. They got to pick a song to sing at homecoming, which was 2 months away. For this being their 2nd practice, they were doing pretty good, apart from Charles’ voice becoming silent at times when he tried to sing notes higher than the octaves he could reach at this moment.

Huh. This day at school seemed like it was going great so far. That was until the lights went out. All of them. Everyone in the room gasped. “Calm down guys, it’s probably a power outage.” said Henry. “Okay kids, line up so we can evacuate safely. It was difficult, but thankfully, Charles’ cellphone had a built-in flashlight, so Charles helped light the way out the building. He was like Roudolph, but he wasn’t a reindeer with a birth defect.

Everyone’s parents were coming to pick them up. Were these kids planning these things to happen so they could get out of school early? Who knows. Henry looked around for Charles, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Henry grew worried, until Morgana showed up. Maybe Charles is sitting in the office to wait for his aunt. He saw this true when Charles walked out the school with his aunt ,his face burrowed into the fur trim on his hoodie. Henry just kind of watched Charles leave with his aunt. It felt different not seeing Ms. Calvin comes up to Charles, gives him a big hug, and say a quick hello to Henry and Charles’ other friends. Henry noticed something that he really didn’t care about, but still seemed very off; Where were the toppat kids? They usually just sat in the parking lot vaping until a staff had to tell them to stop. They weren’t here. Henry thought to himself “Man, Sven’s mercedes sure looks like the one during the accident… but I know Sven, he would never sacrifice his car to murder someone.

Later that day, around 9:30, Henry lay awake in his bed, watching the TV. He felt something vibrating in his pocket. “Is somebody really trying to call me at this hour?” Henry thought. He pulled out his phone and he was right. Charles was calling him. Henry answered the call. “Hello? Charles? Are you okay?” Henry said in a concerning tone. “H-Henry…” Charles said while crying. “I’m sorry for calling you at this hour but… I really could use somebody right now… Is it possible for me to come over?” Henry’s eyes widened. He would want nothing more, but his parents would not. “Look,” said Henry. “Do you have any way of getting here?” Charles responded with “Yeah, there’s a bike in my aunt’s garage,” “Great” said Henry. “Come to my house at the address I’m about to text you and give me a whistle when you’re here. I’ll pull you in my room through the window. Sounds good?” There was silence on the other end. Guess Charles was already on his way.

Henry still lay on his bed in his room eating a bowl of popcorn, watching a Modern Family marathon on TV. Suddenly, he heard a whistle outside. It sounded like someone was calling for a dog. Henry looked out his window. It was Charles. His headset was around his neck and his hood was up. He waved to Henry, who then opened the window, grabbed Charles by the hands and lifted him inside, both of them falling back. They got up and dusted themselves off. “Thank you for letting me come here… even if it’s late.” Charles said. “Mind if I sit?” he asked, pointing to Henry’s bed. “No of course!” insisted Henry. “I was watching a marathon if you wanna watch with me.” said Henry. “Actually” Charles interrupted. “I-I was hoping i could talk to you about something.” Henry nodded and gave him an affirming “mhm”. 

”W-Well…” said Charles as he began tearing up. “It’s my mom, Hen. I just… I miss her so much, this is so hard to take in! It’s only been what, almost a week of school and my mother is dead! She died on our 3rd day!! Now other bad things are happening, l-like what happened with Calvin and when Amelia got a concussion during football practice. It’s just… Such a difficult thing… I’ll never see her again. She’ll never see me graduate, she’ll never see me learn how to fly a helicopter, she’ll never see me get married… She’ll never get to see me grow up and I’ll never get to see her, Hen! We’ll never get to see eachother again.” Charles put his head in his hands and started to sob. 

Henry gave him a hug as Charles leaned his head on his shoulder. “You know, Charles. Just because you can’t see someone doesn’t mean they’re not there.” Charles sniffled and wiped the tears away from his face. “But.. Henry… it hurts so much… I feel like I could have stopped it somehow… but I couldn’t.” Henry looked down, then looked towards Charles’ palms, where he had gauze pads taped on them, with only small and faint blood stains. “Charles… I’m here for you no matter what… please, stop crying and try to calm down…” The hug Henry was giving Charles started to tighten as Henry pet Charles on the shoulder, hoping it would give him some comfort. Charles started to stop sobbing, just for Henry. He gave him a forced smile. “You don’t need to smile until you’re ready to.” Henry said to Charles. 

Charles looked at Henry in his eyes, and he just kind of… gazed, staring at him. He never does that, To anyone. Henry looked back at him. God, Henry’s face started going red, which made Charles break his stare. “Why are your cheeks red?” Henry cut him off. “So uh, do you like popcorn?” Henry asked nervously. Charles smiled. “Yeah, I love popcorn.” he answered. Henry grabbed the bowl and handed it to Charles. “You love a lot of foods, huh?” Charles put a popcorn in his mouth. “Well, Pizza is the best, but I HATE vegetables.” Charles said as he stuffed his mouth with popcorn. Henry stared at Charles, almost turning into a tomato. “Will you excuse me?” Henry said as he rushed out of his room to the bathroom. Charles was confused for a moment, but shrugged it off and ate some more popcorn.

Henry paced back and forth in the bathroom. “What if the feelings aren’t mutual? What if he doesn’t get the grasp? What if he’s gonna hate me afterwards? Oh, oh boy.” Henry had a whole jungle of butterflies in his stomach as he pondered about telling Charles how he feels. The 2 have only known each other for 2 weeks, but Henry had already caught feelings for his friend. Not only that, Henry knew that Ellie had feelings for him. Unfortunate for Ellie that Henry doesn’t play on that team. At all. Seeing as this is a pattern, Henry thought to himself “What if he likes Ellie?!”. Henry just sat in the bathroom, pondering. After a few minutes, he came out and went to his room. He wouldn’t tell him yet. He’ll tell him the month before the school dance. 

He walked into his room to see Charles, laying on the bed, completely passed out and asleep, with his arms and legs spread out completely, leaving no room for Henry to sleep… in his own bed. Henry just smiled. He put the blanket over Charles and grabbed a spare blanket from his closet. He wrapped himself in the blanket and used his folded clothes as a pillow. “...Goodnight Charles.” he mumbled under his breath, before yawning and dozing off.


	7. Now or Never

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henry decides if there's any time to tell Charles what he's wanted to say, the time is now.

Timeskip… again… a month forward. The school dance was within 4 weeks from now. Nearly everyone… except the toppats of course… had people to go to the dance with. Some were dancing as friends, siblings, but not many as romantic partners. Henry has been quite a social mess the past few days. He knew he would eventually need to tell Charles if he wanted this to workout. He didn’t want to let this opportunity slip. It would be another year before the next dance. It was either now or having to wait a whole year, and Henry’s memory isn't that great to remember something a year after.

In the middle of English class, Henry raised his hand. “Yes Henry?” the teacher looked at him. Henry acted sick and nauseous. “May I please be excused?” He pretended like he was about to gag. “Do you need the nurse?” said the teacher in concern. Henry began walking out the room. “No no, It’s fine, I just need to go to the bathroom!” Henry darted out the room and walked into the bathroom with a notebook and a pen. If he was going to say something, he knew he had to write it down and mentally rehearsed. He was so incredibly nervous. He kept thinking to himself “is it too soon to do this? I can just wait one more week right? Why can’t I just tell him after school?” Suddenly, Charles came in to wash his hands. He seemed to have gotten purple paint on anywhere but the canvas or paper. Suddenly, without thinking, Henry blurted out “Hey Charles!” “god damnit!” he thought to himself mentally. Charles looked around, Henry was in a stall, but Charles didn’t know. “Henry? Are you a ghost or something? Where are you?!” He looked around everywhere, but the stalls. “Henry, if you can hear me say flank steak!!” Henry cleared his throat as it seems he teleported behind Charles, Henry really is fast. Charles screamed a little bit as he turned around to see it was Henry. “Oh there you are, Thank god! I thought you died and became a ghost! What’s up?” Charles asked as he washed his hands.

Henry’s face had already started turning a bit red. “Can… Can I come over to your place tonight?” Charles sighed. “Sorry Hen, but my aunt doesn’t let people over… I don’t know why she just… doesn’t really want me around people ever since the accident… She actually thinks either you or Ellie caused it… I… Know that is absolutely untrue… If you really need to tell me something, I can bike to your place. Henry wasn’t going to be able to have visitors over either. He was going to be busy putting new furniture together. “Well, I can’t have visitors either.” said Henry with a smile. Charles, looking disappointed. Shrugged with a “hm” and started walking away. “Wait!” Henry said as he ran in front of Charles to block him. “If we can’t see each other tonight, then I need to tell you something before it’s too late.” Charles gasped and started tearing up. “W-What do you mean before it’s too late?! Are you dying?! Are you moving away?!... AM I DYING OR MOVING AWAY?!” Henry quickly shushed him and reassured him. “Charles no!! It’s nothing of the sort!” Charles grew anxious. “Then please, just tell me!!” “Okay okay fine!!” Henry sighed. He took a deep breath. Charles was ready to listen. “I…” Henry started having second thoughts again, but it was too late when the words came out of his mouth by themself. “I like you.” Charles raised an eyebrow. He didn’t know what he was talking about, until he started connecting the dots. “...Like?... A-As in… Like-Like? As in you have a crush on me?” Charles asked. Henry’s face turned completely red as he covered his mouth and slowly nodded. Charles’ cheeks started turning pink as he hid his face in the fur trim on his hoodie. 

There was a minute of silence until Charles mumbled something under his breath, while looking down. Henry couldn’t quite hear it. “What did you say?” he asked. Charles looked down at the floor, with his eyes looking at Henry. “I said… I like-like you too…” both of their cheeks instantly went red. “R-Really” Henry asked. Charles looked at him and gave him a frantic nod. Henry just kinda smiled a bit, while staring at Charles’ hair. “Oh… Oh wow, alright then…” He said. Charles began to slowly look back at Henry. “I know this… may seem silly of me to ask, but the timing feels right, do you… wanna go to homecoming with me?” asked Charles as he buried his face more into the fur trim. Henry smiled and laughed a tiny bit. “I… Would love to!” Henry said as he and Charles were about to hug. They heard a loud “Uhh…” come from the entrance door. They turned to see Dave, who had just walked in and heard most of what happened. Henry and Charles’ faces were both flushed. They looked at Dave, then each other, then back at Dave, who just stood there. After a few seconds of silence, Henry and Charles rushed out the bathroom, away from Dave. “... alright that’s cool…” said Dave as he went to go do what he needed to do.

Remember Henry’s second thoughts about it not being the time to confess his crush? He was right. Ellie had come in late to school, with a small flower bouquet in her hands. She looked around for Henry. “Henry, you around here?” she asked. Henry heard her voice from down the hall. He and Charles both walked down the hall to see Ellie with her flowers. “Hi Henry.” She said in a soft tone. She seemed to be wearing extra makeup today. Charles stood there, feeling like a third wheel. “... and Charles…” he mumbled to himself. Ellie looked at him. “And… and Charles… Anyways!” she directed her attention to Henry. “Henry, I felt a tiny bit nervous about this, but I kept thinking to myself that it will be okay! Now there’s only 4 weeks left for everyone to pick a partner, and… Well… I wanted to ask if you would go to the dance with me?” she asked, handing Henry the flower bouquet. Henry eyed Charles who just stared at Ellie. “Thank you for the offer Ellie, I really appreciate it, but you’re a bit late.” Ellie went from smiling to frowning within half a second. “Excuse me?” she said.

“Well…” started off Henry. “Charles already kind of asked me to go with him first off… and… even if he didn’t I still wouldn’t go with you.” Ellie started to tear up a bit. “I-Is it the makeup? Is it too much? Is it too less?” Ellie started getting sad. Henry pat her shoulder. “No no, it’s not that at all, it’s not personally against you I… I just never really found myself attracted to girls.” Ellie looked down a bit. She thought the issue was something on her end, but now that Henry told her, she was less upset. “I… I understand” said Ellie. “I’m happy for you.” Charles was kind of mad at Ellie for trying to steal his date. “... and Charles!...” he gritted through his teeth. Ellie laughed. “You too Charles.” She began walking off. “I’ll see you in music class in 5, This is our last practice before we start rehearsing.” She said. Charles smiled a bit. “...I guess that’s exciting.” he said.

Later in music class, The Triple Threat’s performance was way better than it had been the past 2 weeks or so. They actually sound really great! And by this point, the 3 Muskrats finally got to practice again now that Calvin knows not to accept “hot sauce” from someone else. All the students in music class watched and listened as the band yet again practiced “Don’t Stop Me Now.” When they finished, everyone in music class clapped. They were incredibly talented, even though they started only 4 weeks ago, but to be fair, Ellie does have experience with the guitar, so it was way easier for her. Henry and Charles smiled at each other and gave each other a thumbs up. The Triple Threat sat back down so the emo kids could play their edgy songs about death. Henry, who wasn't into that stuff just kind of zoned out. He was so happy about how the confession went, he was so happy Charles reciprocated his feelings, he didn’t expect that. 

Dave was talking to Calvin and Konrad about how “Henry and Charles almost made out in the bathroom”. Calvin and Konrad glared at Henry and Charles. They didn’t really understand the concept of 2 boys liking eachother in a romantic way, but just because they don't understand it, doesn’t mean they don’t support it. They’re just shocked his best friend out of all people turned out to be into boys. Funny they still call him their best friend when they’re always hanging out with Dave in their dumb little band. They haven’t hung out with Charles ever since the train incident.

But, the train incident was almost a month ago already. It seemed like it was years old because of how slow things seemed to move from there. Everyone has mostly forgotten about it.

Well… everyone except for 5 students…


	8. It Was You!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charles discovers who was responsible for the incident on the 3rd day of school

As the weeks went by, things had seemed to start to settle down. Not much chaos was happening around the school opposed to a few weeks ago. It was the day before homecoming. Funny how they have homecoming so early instead of the end of the school year, right? 

So anyways, Henry was at the store with his dad to buy something nice to wear for the dance. He had 4 weeks to prepare and just now decided to go clothes shopping. He had forgotten all about it, honestly. His memory really isn’t all too well. Charles had already gotten his formal wear, but he won’t show Henry, he wants it to be a surprise. Henry wasn’t one for formal wear, Neither was Charles. God, they’re really perfect for eachother, aren’t they? Henry really wanted to wear something casual, but being the show-off he is, he was willing to go out of his clothing comfort zone. He found 2 tops that seemed perfect for him. A nice dress shirt with a sweater. He took the hangers off the rack and put them in the cart. “Ah, nice choice!” said his dad.”I bet your nice little girlfriend will be impressed at how well you know how to dress.” Henry didn’t want to tell his dad. Not one part of him wanted him to know. 

They went up to the checkout and Henry paid for the clothes. He was so excited to go home and be prepared for tomorrow. As soon as he got home, he was going to take a nice shower, style his hair, and probably stay up all night not being able to sleep from the excitement.

Meanwhile, with Charles, he was in the bathroom, trying to brush his hair. He was going to try out different hairstyles with the clothes he had gotten to see which one he liked best. He tried a nice slick-back hair style. Didn’t like it. How about a dumb little man bun? Also didn’t like it. What if he curled his hair a bit? Again, he didn’t like it. After trying a whole bunch of hair styles, He finally found the perfect one; His normal hair style. He just stuck with that because it looked best.

Later at his house, Henry was putting on his pajamas after coming out of the shower. Normally, he would blow dry his hair afterwards, but no, he had an idea of what he was going to do. It seemed dumb, but he tool some plastic straws and bobby pins from the drawer and started wrapping his hair around the straws. He would then pin his hair to the straws. The hairstyle he had in mind was some curly side-swept hair. He then moved all his hair to the side, to try and get it to dry like that. He went straight to bed and lay down, trying to sleep. He was having a bit of a difficult time, but it wasn’t anything 2 melatonin pills couldn’t help out with. In 10 minutes, he was out like a light.

As for Ellie, she didn’t have anyone to go with. She was alright with that. Really, she was. She was at least going to be able to hang out with her friends when they performed on the stage during homecoming. She didn’t care if she had a boyfriend or not. Her friends mattered the most to her. 

Meanwhile with Dave, he laid awake in his bed, eating a plate of boneless chicken wings. He and his band were going to perform too, being the first one before Shattered Heart and Red Robbers. The Triple Threat would be last to perform. Dave just thought about how good he and his friends were going to perform their cover of “Take On Me” by A-ha. “Damn, I sure hope I don’t forget to make sure everything is plugged in tomorrow.” Dave said to himself as he watched the T.V, eating his chicken wings like a pig.

The morning had finally come, Henry’s alarm went off. He woke up with a smile and smashed the alarm clock to turn it off. He immediately grabbed his clothes and other things he had gotten from the store to get ready for today. He took all those straws out of his hair, swept it to the side, and used some hair spray to make sure it stayed the way it is. Charles buttoned his shirt and threw a casual, yet formal jacket on and checked himself out in the mirror. He pointed finger guns at himself and just kept complimenting himself. “Damn, that’s one handsome devil right there.” Ellie was putting on some mascara, lipstick, and eyeshadow. She had bought a new dress just for this day. A nice fuschia colored dress with black trimmings. Dave was asleep on the couch in his house, laying on his face with his butt in the air, he snored really loudly, his sister was in the dining room eating breakfast and she just couldn’t stand the snoring. Neither could her and Dave’s dad. Dave kind of got himself into a food coma from eating the abundance of leftover chicken wings from dinner the night before. Even though he’s supposed to ask before he could even get any leftovers. 

Henry rushed right outside to wait for the bus. He was practically jumping on his feet. Normally, homecomings happen after school hours, but at Papir High, theirs was usually held from 12 until the end of the school day, which was at 3.. It was almost like a party. As soon as the bus came, Henry rushed in and sat next to Ellie. “Hey Ellie!” he said. Ellie waved back and said hi. “Ooh wow!” she said. “I really like your outfit!” Henry smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. “Thanks! You look good too! I hope you’re ready to perform tonight!” Henry said as he winked and finger gunned at Ellie. “Of course I am!” she said as she elbowed him in a playful manner. Dave sat in the seat that was next to where the Bukowski twins were sitting. He had his head back, trying to refrain from vomiting. Calvin and Konrad looked at each other then to Dave. “You good?” Konrad asked. Dave looked at him, nodded and gave a thumbs up.

The bus finally arrived at school. Henry pushed everyone aside and rushed to the bench. Charles was sitting there, also waiting for Henry. Henry sat right next to him. “Hi Charles!” he said to him. “You look really really nice!” Charles blushed and turned away, starting to fidget with his hands. “Thanks!” He said “... You look nice too! I really like what you did with your hair.” He said. Henry smiled and hugged Charles. Some of the kids talked about it to themselves as they walked in the class, mostly they were a bit shocked that the scrawny tall kid got with the naive short kid. They honestly didn’t care about the fact they were both boys.

At the homecoming party, there were a bunch of new people there. Some had left school the year before, and some even had jobs! One of them even brought his and his girlfriend’s baby. There was a buffet table and a fruit punch bowl. Most of the food in the buffet didn’t last long because of Dave-fucking-Panpa, but they had more of everything, so it was all okay! Charles and Henry were dancing with each other. They both looked so incredibly happy. And guess what? The Toppat clan came, but only to mess around. Like, Sven was hiding under a table and when a kid came close, he would trip them. Henry wasn’t that good of a dancer, but Charles was able to help him out. Suddenly, everyone in the room heard Grigori’s voice on the P.A. System.

“Hello, and welcome to homecoming dance. We have 4 bands performing today, made up of school's very own students. First on stage is 3 Muskrats.” Grigori said as the stage lights directed themselves onto Calvin, Konrad, and Dave, who was eating a slice of pizza. It took him 5 seconds to realize that they were performing, like right now. He casually threw his pizza on the floor and rushed to his synthesizer. He looked to see if it, and Konrad’s electric guitar, were plugged in. They weren’t. As Calvin began playing the drums, Dave rushed to plug everything in, thankfully, he did it in the nick of time he was supposed to start playing his synthesizer. He played a chord and 2 notes, then Konrad began strumming the guitar. “Thank god.” he thought to himself. “Dave plugged them in this time.” Dave looked out of breath from running, but managed to keep himself up as he and the band began performing and singing Take On Me. The Toppats didn’t like this kind of music, so they all left to probably go hit a joint in the bathroom together.

Ellie went to Charles and Henry. “Guys,” she said. “We’re gonna be up in 15.” she said. “Alright!” said Henry, as he was trying to dance to the song. Charles however, was doing an excellent job at this whole “dancing thing”. When the band was done singing, Dave left and rushed to the bathroom to vomit, palming his face on the door as he ran out. Charles and Henry decided to take a break from dancing and they had some food to eat. Charles was eating some pizza and Henry was eating spaghetti, both of them had snuck in cans of soda. Charles never really got to drink soda that often because of his ADHD, but what the hell, this was a party. Ellie sat and hung out with them as they chatted about how lame some of the kids were at dancing and they just told jokes to each other. Charles got up. “I’m going to go to the bathroom really quick, okay fellas?” he said. “Please try to hurry!” said Ellie. ‘I don't want this to be ruined, the school’s counting on us.” Charles gave her a thumbs up and left to go use the bathroom. When he walked in, the first thing he saw was Dave hunched over a trash can, vomiting. The whole bathroom also smelled like weed, a smell Charles wasn’t used to. He just tried his best to ignore it. He went to the sink to cup some water in his hands and wash his face with it. His face had tomato sauce all over it from eating the pizza. He heard some coughing from one of the stalls and they started talking. Charles, being the easily distracted boy he is, decided to eavesdrop.

“You did a great job tripping those kids, Sven. Can’t believe one of them twisted their ankle.” said Right Hand Man as he dragged the blunt, passing it to Reginald. “Heh, thanks!” Sven replied. “Honestly, I guess I am still short enough to hide under a table.” Charles rolled his eyes, thinking “Of course, they caused everyone to trip.” As Charles was about to leave, he heard one of the kids say “train”. He stopped in his path and stood to keep listening. “Yeah.” said Reginald as he took a drag. Shame that Charlie kid’s mom died. We weren’t trying to kill them! I wanted you to slam them in a wall or something, maybe get them paralyzed. Then, that wannabe pilot won't be able to have a job.” Sven crossed his arms. “Well, if you had given me clearer instructions in the beginning, maybe I would have done just that, but nooo, you didn’t tell me what to do until my car got totaled, asshole!” Reginald scoffed. “Asshole? Look buddy, go to a mirror if you wanna call someone an asshole.” Before Sven could reply, Right Hand Man snapped. “Enough, both of you!” he shouted. Sven and Reginald huffed as they kept dragging the joint.

Charles stood there, tearing up… it was them… how could he not have know it was them… the reason his mom’s gone, the reason him and his friends were hurt… It was all because of  _ them _ ! He turned around, facing the stall they were in, he put his hand in his back pocket. He doesn’t care if “they didn’t mean it”. What happened still happened, and they were trying to hurt him and his friends anyhow. 

Sven and his 2 friends walked out of the stall and saw Charles, standing in their way. He was  _ not _ happy. Sven took a step forward, being the handler of the situation. “Hey there, Charlie!” he said. Before he could say anything else, Charlie interrupted him, with an aggressive and stern tone. “Do  _ not _ call me Charlie.” Dave, knew what was going to happen, so he fled right out of there. Sven sighed. “...Right. Anyways, I’m sorry about what happened… well, not really, but…” He was cut off yet again, by Charles pulling a plastic knife out of his pocket. Sven stood there for a minute and started to laugh. “What are you gonna do? Stab me?” Charles suddenly punched Sven in the face and braced himself to cut him with the knife. It was plastic, yes, but the surface cuts it would leave will sting. Sven was knocked out cold. Before he could make a move, Reginald pulled out a  _ real _ knife and Right Hand Man pulled out a small pistol. Charles’ eyes widened. “H-How did you get those in here?!” he asked. “School doesn’t check the bags…” Right Hand Man said as he and Reginald laughed. “I suppose you better run away before we make you…” Said Reginald. Charles thought for a moment, to fight or to flee… He kicked Right Hand Man in the face and had scratched him with the knife. Reginald took his knife and tried stabbing Charles in the side, but Charles has really fast reflexes. He dodges every hit and tries his best to get Reginald with his knife. Right Hand Man quickly took his gun and shot at Charles, but fortunately, he missed, but it startled Charles enough that he dropped the knife. The gunshot woke Sven up, who also braced himself for defense. Charles tried to pick the knife back up, but Sven grabbed it. “Ah ah ah! Not so fast!!” he said. “You mess with the clan, you get the slam!” Charles stood there, confused. “That rhyme sucks.” he said. Right Hand Man shot his pistol at him again, but Charles ducked and ran off. Sven started chasing him. “Come with me, you useless dirtrags!” he said to RHM and Reginald who ran with them. Charles ran down the hall, almost screaming for help, but no one could hear him over the emo kid’s performance of “Welcome To The Black Parade” in the homecoming room. 

Charles found a door that led to some stairs. He started running up, as did Sven and his group. RHM attempted to shoot at Charles to get him to stop. He almost got him, the bullet had grazed his shoulder. Charles screamed a bit in pain. He had just bought this nice white dress shirt, now it was going to have blood on it. He continued to run up the stairs. He found his way in the school’s attic, with nowhere to go. He was trapped, and without a weapon. Sven, Right Hand Man, and Reginald had him cornered. Charles suddenly at that moment, thought of a plan. He rushed up to Right Hand Man. Everything seemed to play out in slow motion as Charles wrapped his arm around RHM’s elbow and broke it by adding sudden pressure, making RHM drop the pistol. Charles grabbed the gun and threw Right Hand Man down on the ground. Reginald tried to stab Charles again, but Charles punched Reginald in the face, knocking him out and swept his leg under his feet, making him fall. It was just him and Sven now. Sven took out the plastic knife he stole from Charles and swung it at him, He did end up scratching his nose, but Charles grabbed the knife out of his hands and pointed the pistol at Sven’s head. Sven, knowing he couldn’t do anything else, sat there.

Charles’ was shaking and almost crying. He raised his voice. “What did you think was going to happen when you crashed into the side of the car?! When it drifted onto the railroad tracks! Did you think I would simply forget about it? Did you think at all?!" Sven sat there, quiet and almost trembling. This kid was 14, how did he manage to get a 16 year old to start to fear his life? Charles took a step forward, keeping the pistol aimed at Sven. “You and your friends can think I’m stupid all you want. Anyone can think that of me… or my friends… That doesn’t mean I’ll take it and tolerate it like it’s normal!” Sven just wanted Charles to fucking shoot him already and get it over with. “...I’m not going to shoot you. I’m not like that.” Charles said. “I’m giving you and your friends a chance.” Reginald and Right Hand Man have already made a run for it. Sven was not having it. He grabbed the knife Reginald left and almost stabbed Charles, before he got shot… in the dick.

Charles had both his eyes shut when he pulled the trigger, he couldn’t see. He had shot Sven in the dick. Everyone knows you don’t shoot a guy in the dick. Sven laid there, bleeding and crying. Charles walked up to Sven, made their eyes meet, and said to him. “Trust me, once I join the government, I’m the last person you’ll want to see.” He dropped the pistol and walked back down the stairs. He went to go find a med pack to see if he could at least put a bandaid over the graze for now. His shoulder and nose were bleeding almost like crazy. Before he could even find anything, he heard the 3rd band finish playing their song from down the hall. “Oh no! Our performance!” Charles said to himself as he sprinted down the hall.

Before Charles could get there, The Triple Threat was already on stage, about to start. Henry and Ellie were very worried. Especially Henry, he was going to faint. Ellie tought “Fuck it, if he’s not here thats fine.” Her and Henry began performing. Charles almost didn’t make it in time. Once Ellie started singing the “Cause I’m having a good time” part at the start of the song, Charles came into the room and sang with her. Ellie and Henry both had huge smiles on their faces as they sang and played the drums. Charles rushed through the people watching them and got up on the stage with his friends to sing the backing vocals with Ellie. He was surprised they didn’t notice the blood stain on his shirt or coming from his nose. 

The band finished the song as everyone in the room clapped. They walked off the stage to go back to dancing. Henry noticed the blood on Charles’ shirt. “Charles! Holy shit, what happened?! Are you okay?!” Henry asked as he ran up and gave Charles a big hug. Charles winced a bit from the pain of pressure, but tried to reassure Henry. “I-I”m fine  Hen, don’t worry.” Charles said. Henry grabbed Charles’ hand and walked off “I’m not going to buy it. I’m gonna check it out for you.” He said.

  
Later in the bathroom, Henry was giving Charles some tissue to apply to the scratch on his nose as he treated his graze, “Wow, and you shot him in the dick?! I didn’t know you could handle a gun.” Henry said. “I can't,” Charles replied. “I was actually too scared to shoot him, both my eyes were c-” he was cut off by the sudden sting of alcohol. “Ahhh, that hurts like a  _ bitch _ !” Charles said through gritted teeth as Henry dabbed the soaked cloth on the wound. “Hey, It’s okay.” said Henry. The cloth was soaked in blood and alcohol when he was done using it. He took some bandages and wrapped Charles’ shoulder with it.” Charles looked down and sighed as Henry finished up. “There, all done.” said Henry. “See? It wasn’t that bad, Now let’s keep dancing, or if you want, we can hang out and eat.” Charles thought of something. “... Can we just hang out?” he asked. “Of course” nodded Henry. Charles got up and said “Great.” as he pecked Henry on the cheek and walked back to the big room. Henry’s cheeks went red as he smiled and followed Charles back to the room, where he, him, and Ellie kept making more jokes and drinking more punch.


	9. Camping Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The class goes on a fun camping trip!

Today in class, permission slips were passed out, asking for permission to let the students go on a fun camping trip. Henry really wanted to go. As did most of the students apart of his class. Ellie asked Henry “Are you gonna go?” Henry nodded. “Well, of course I am! I hope Charles comes too!” The Bukowski twins looked at the flier then at each other. They gave each other a high five. “Alright! Twin camping stuff!” Calvin and Konrad said in unison. Henry raised an eyebrow. “What is twin camping stuff?” Calvin looked at Henry, shocked. “You don’t know what Twin Camping stuff is?! It’s things you’d normally do camping alone, but with your awesome twin brother!”. Konrad laughed. “Yeah! We could catch fish from the river together, tell spooky ghost stories, all that crap!” Ellie turned to them/ “What's the difference than doing it alone?” she asked. Konrad snapped “It's fun because i’m doing it with my brother!” Ellie and Henry raised both their arms up and turned away.

Dave looked at his flier. Damn, Dave was dressed like a complete fuckboy today, wearing his “Chick Magnet” shirt that he likes so much. It’s almost as if he’s trying to hide that he’s probably gay. He is the complete opposite of a chick magnet, the girls avoid him as much as they can. They don’t like listening to him ramble and he’s just such an annoying person to be around. Especially with his chick magnet shirt. He was so cocky when he had it on. He acted like he gets all the ladies. He was also excited to go camping, contemplating the idea of making s'mores.

“Oh, Students!” piped up the teacher. “We have a brand new student joining us today! He’s from Los Angeles. Say hello to Burt Curtis!” A kid with black hair walked in. His bangs covered almost both his eyes and he had quite the poker face. “Hi, I’m Burt…” the kid said with a monotone voice. “I’m new to Arizona. And I moved here from Los Angeles.” Everyone in the class looked at each other in surprise. They never met anyone from out of the state. “How amazing!” said the teacher. “Welcome to Arizona! You can sit next to David over there!” she pointed to an empty seat next to Dave. Burt took the seat and looked at Dave. He saw his “chick magnet” shirt. “Nice” he said to Dave as he raised a fist for a fistbump. Dave looked to Burt, saw his fist, and gave him the fistbump. “Thanks.” he said. “Welcome to school, hope you enjoy your time here.” Dave leaned in and whispered to Burt “Just avoid the kids wearing the top hats” he said. Burt nodded. “Okay… thanks kid.” the teacher passed Burt the camping flier, who nodded and put it in his backpack to give to his mother.

Right Hand Man and Reginald looked at eachother with smirks. They had an idea. They weren’t going to bully the kid like they did with almost every new student that came to school. They wanted to recruit him. Sven was in the hospital and would be out of school for the next couple of weeks. Reginald thought a new member would be a nice surprise for his friend. 

Later, during lunch, Henry, Ellie, and Charles sat with each other, Henry and Ellie rambling on and on about how much fun they had at homecoming. Charles just kind of stared down at his food and poked at it. The only fun he had was dancing with Henry and hanging out with him and Ellie, but when he went to the bathroom and fought against Right Hand Man, Reginald, and Sven, managing to get up in the school attic, he had no fun. How if finding out who killed your mother and almost  _ being _ killed fun? His shoulder was bandaged up from being grazed by a bullet“So…” said Henry. Charles looked up at him. Henry smiled at him. “Are you going camping tomorrow?” he asked. Charles shrugged his good shoulder. “I don’t know…” he looked up at Henry more and smiled. “... Are you going?” he asked. Henry nodded. “Of course I am! I’m gonna bring things to make s'mores!” Charles smiled more “Then of course I’ll go!” he said. Henry grinned at him. “Great.

Burt sat at a table, all by himself. Reginald and Right Hand Man came over and cleared their throats. “May we sit here?” asked Reginald. Burt thought to himself “That kid in the chick magnet shirt said to avoid these kids, but what if he’s just a jerk kid trying to trick me? Has he told anyone else to avoid them? I’ll just let them sit with me, I’ll take my chances.” Burt nodded as Reginald and Right Hand Man sat with him. “So, Los Angeles huh?” said Right Hand Man. “That’s quite far from here.” Burt just kind of eyed the 2 kids as he ate his sandwich. Dave sat at a table not too far from them with Calvin and Konrad, who were chattering all about what they would do during their school’s camping trip. “I told him those kids were not good…” he mumbled under his breath.

“What’s wrong Dave?” asked Calvin. Konrad tilted his head. “Usually you’re eating your food. Why are you staring at the new kid? You think he’s hot or something?” he and Calvin laughed and did their “secret twin handshake” that they had. Dave quickly turned back to them and his cheeks flushed a tiny bit. “What?! No!!” he snapped. “I’m just… worried. I told him to avoid the Toppat kids, why is he with them?!” Calvin shrugged. “Dave, relax. Whatever happens, happens. They bully all the new kids.” Dave became shocked. “Do you know what happened at homecoming last week?! I was in the bathroom when that Charles kid came in, and I’m pretty sure they pulled weapons on him. I heard the fight up until Sven called him Charlie. I know he  _ hates _ that.” Calvin nodded. “Oh yeah, Charles! We got to hang out with him more. “That isn’t the point.” Dave said as he facepalmed. “The point is you have no clue what they could do to this new kid!” Calvin and Konrad rolled their eyes as they got up and walked away, Leaving Dave alone. Dave scoffed and started eating his food.

The next day would eventually come and all the kids, who had their permission slips signed, sat on the bus, next to the kid they wanted to partner up with. Charles paired with Henry, Konrad paired with Calvin, blah blah blah, and it left Dave and Burt to have to be paired together. Burt didn’t like sitting next to Dave. Seats that weren’t too wide and a kid with an endomorph body type did not mix well together. Good thing Burt was thin. He wasn’t sitting on half the seat, he just barely had any legroom. “Psst. Burt, was it?” Dave whispered to Burt. Burt looked at him and nodded “Yeah, what about it?” Dave put his backpack on his lap. “Wanna see my new hat I got? I’m gonna put it on later.” Burt shrugged. “Sure, I guess.” He moved his bangs away so he would be able to see the hat. Dave pulled out a hat that had “Boob Police” embroidered on it. Burt laughed a bit, smiling for the first time since he arrived at the school. “Wow! How much did you waste on that hat?” he said through a smile. Dave playfully elbowed him. “Heh. Waste? It was only 5 dollars! My cousin got it for me when they went to Vegas. The souvenirs there really are cheap.” Burt looked away and smiled.

The school bus parked by the woods and all the kids got off the bus, paired with their buddies, and followed the teacher to the campsite. Dave had his “boob police” hat on. Once they got to the campgrounds, the kids started setting their tents up and whoever was done went to go help find firewood. Charles got to rest in the tent once Henry finished setting it up. Ellie and another female student went to go fetch firewood, and Dave, well, was being Dave. Laying in his sleeping bag in the tent and taking everything he has out his backpack. Burt grabbed Dave by his arm and dragged him out to go get firewood with him. Dave didn’t want to go, but Burt was stronger than him, dragging him all the way to the trees.Since the kids left as soon as school ended and it took 3 hours to get to the campgrounds, the sun was starting to set and it started to become dark. The kids came back with firewood and started a fire. The teacher brought the camping chairs she had gotten for the students and set them out. “Okay students!” she said. “I brought you all plates and long skewer sticks to make s'mores! And in case you forgot your s'more ingredients, I have extra graham crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows. Dave grabbed a bag he had in his backpack. There was enough crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows to make about 20 s'mores. The kids all looked at Dave like he was crazy. Dave glared back at them all, grabbed a plate, and started making his s'mores.

A few minutes later, most of the kids were done making their s'mores. Dave had already started eating his when he noticed Burt didn’t have any and didn’t ask for the spare ingredients the teacher brought. He looked down for a second, grabbed a plate, and put 10 s'mores on it. He handed it to Burt. “Here, you can have half of mine if you want.” he said. Burt’s eyes widened and he shook his head a bit. “Dave, I… I can't, that's too kind of a gesture.” Dave kept handing him the plate. “Please? Do you really think I’m going to eat 20 s'mores?” Burt finally took the plate and laughed a bit. “I actually thought you were. He took a bit out of one. “Thanks... “ He said as Dave smiled.

Henry and Charles sometimes liked to share 1 single brain cell. What they were doing, is they were making a giant s'more. It took 18 graham crackers in total. 3 crackers wide and tall, 9 pieces of chocolate, and 9 marshmallows. They were going to break it in half and share it amongst themselves. Meanwhile with Calvin and Konrad, they were trying to roast 2 marshmallows together and make it 1 marshmallow. A double marshmallow. They were going to make a double s’more. Charles thought of it kind of cute that these twins had such a strong bond, that they would do literally everything together. Even if sometimes, they did get into conflicts.

Later on, some of the kids were already tired and trying to sleep. Burt and Dave were in their tent as Dave was sitting up, eating his smores, and rambling. “Okay so,” Dave started. “My cousin, right? They work as a night guard at this museum place. They went to Vegas for the weekend and they got me this “boob police” hat and that “Chick Magnet” shirt I was wearing earlier.” Burt was tired. He didn’t want to listen to Dave rambling. He thought it rude to ask him to shut up, so he was stuck listening. “Go on…” Burt said in a semi-polite tone. “That’s it.” Dave said with a full mouth. “They work as a night guard.” Burt nodded, not wanting to be rude. “Wow, how interesting. “My dad got mad at me for eating the leftover boneless wings in the fridge last week.” Dave said. “I’m not allowed to get leftovers without asking, but it’s not my fault they were delicious.” Burt snickered a bit. “Wow,” he said. “That’s… sad” Dave nodded frantically as he swallowed his food. “Yeah, it is! And don’t get me started on my little sister, she’s the one who ratted me out. She rats me out on everything I do.” Burt smiled. “Oh yeah? Heh. My older brother’s the same way. Dave turned to burt. “You have a sibling” Burt nodded “Oh yeah. His name’s Toby. He’s a real pain in my ass. He’s 19 years old and still doesn’t have a job” Dave laughed “Wow! What a bum.” Burt laughed. “Yeah, at least your sister is younger.” Dave scoffed “So? That doesn’t mean anything. She’s still annoying.” Dave stuffed another smore in his mouth. Burt shrugged. “I guess, If you say so.”

Charles and Henry were in their tent talking about general things, such as their future careers, and their favorite things. “Yeah!” Henry said. “You know the part where he had to pull the girl’s hat down in the ski lodge? That was hilarious!” Henry was in hysterics. Charles giggled a bit. “Yeah! What about the punishment where they made the fat guy get in a superhero costume and tell everyone to “suck it?”. Henry laughed more. “Oh man! That one was funny too!” Henry said as he lightly fell to the floor on his side. Charles took his jacket off to use as a pillow. He was wearing a gray tank top. He had gauze wrapped around the shoulder that was grazed. “You know, Henry.” Charles said. “You’re a really fun guy to be around. You’re one of the only people I can talk about  _ ANYTHING _ to. I’m super duper happy that I met you.” Henry smiled and playfully punched Charles in his good shoulder. “Heh, how do you think I feel?” Charles laughed a bit and yawned. “I’m pretty tired, I don’t know about you.” Henry got in his own sleeping bag. “I might be up for a tiny bit.” He said. Charles smiled as he got comfortable. “Alrighty then.” Henry got comfortable in his sleeping bag too, using his bed pillow as… well… a pillow.

Charles turned a bit towards Henry. “Hey… Henry?” Henry turned his head back “Yes Charles?” Charles hesitated for a minute, worried someone might hear them, but went for it anyway. “I… love you.” he said. Henry smiled and laughed a tiny bit. “I love you too.” They both went to sleep, with Dave’s rambling to Burt still going on in the background.


	10. An Attempt To Recruit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Right, Reginald, and Sven find out about the new Burt kid that's come to their school.

It was 10 at night, and Sven was laying in his hospital bed, watching a movie on the television set up in his room. His entire reproductive system was destroyed. He could never ever have children. Not that he wanted any but if he ever did in the future, they wouldn’t be his own. The nurse came into the room. “Sven? You have visitors!” She said. Sven was hoping, and in his heart knew, it was Reggie and Right Hand Man. Boy was he right. “Hey there Sven.” Reginald said holding a bunch of “get well soon balloons” Right Hand man came in with flowers and gave Sven a simple “Hey”. Sven laughed a bit. “Right, you brought flowers? That’s kind of gay!” Right Hand Man put the flowers on the nightstand. “What else was I supposed to bring? Reggie already brought balloons.” Sven laughed. “I know, you goon! I was only kidding around. I appreciate you guys coming to see me. So, whats up?”

Reginald sat in one of the chairs. “So, there’s a new kid in school. His name’s Burt. He recently moved here from Los Angeles.” Sven leaned in, seeming intrigued. “Go on…” Right Hand Man took his turn to speak. “We thought it’d be nice for us to gain a new member of our little group as a present for ya. “ Reginald nodded. “Yes, even though this whole thing was my idea. If anything, it’s a present for  _ me _ , but it’s for you too Sven!” Sven scoffed a hit “Yeah right. Anything else?” Right Hand Man scratched the back of his head. “That Dave kid seems to be keeping a close watch on him. It’s either he knows what’s going on or he’s got quite a crush.” Reginald laughed. “Yeah, you should have seen him in his chick magnet shirt that day. It’s like he’s trying to make himself look so straight that it’s obvious he’s gay.” Sven facepalmed. “We’re not talking about Panpa, We’re talking about this Burt kid!” Right Hand Man and Reginald said in unison “We’re getting there!” Reginald continued. “I saw David eyeing us when we sat with Burt. I think he’s onto our plan. We need to do something to keep his mouth shut.”

Around 12 in the morning, Dave had finally shut his mouth and gone to sleep. Burt was sitting up in his sleeping bag, awake. He was actually having a lot of fun talking with Dave about their annoying siblings and what not. He wanted to keep talking, but let Dave sleep anyways. He turned his back for a minute and suddenly, had a cloth put over his mouth. Everything went black and he seemed to have fallen asleep.

By 4 am, Burt woke up, in a trailer. It smelt like rats and alcohol. “Ah, you’re finally awake,” said Right Hand Man. “Where am I?” asked Burt. “Where’s the chatty kid?” “Ahh that’s nothing to worry about for now.” said Reggie. “Look kid, we like you. Really like you. I run a group in this school. We call ourselves “The Toppat Clan.” We like to do crimes around the school and make lives miserable. Hell, we even killed some kid’s mother. We’re going to give you 2 options here. You could either Join us and torture the other kids with us, including your friend, or, you say no, and this clan will make your life miserable too. We’ll decide what we want to do with Davey. What is it going to be? Burt looked at the both of them. “Are you crazy?! You better let me go right now. Dave too! It’s past 1 in the morning, let us go!” Right pulled out a pistol. “Would you like to make a choice, or ramble and become a stain on my carpets?”

Being faced with a choice, Burt needed to take this time to contemplate. He liked Dave, alot. He doesn’t want to hurt him, at all. The other kids, he could care less about. The things the Toppats do to their peers in school often happened to Burt back in LA. The kids in Los Angeles schools are rough and mean. Burt thought that if he joined this clan, he just might be able to take all those horrible things and push them onto all the other kids until they were all gone. Maybe there would be a way he could avoid hurting Dave. He just wouldn’t involve himself in anything Reggie, Sven, or Right do to Dave. On another hand, he wouldn’t have to worry about avoiding Dave. Just the Topppats. But boy were they tough. Burt had already taken enough shit from Los Angeles. He’s not going to take it from some dirty Arizona kids too.

“Okay, fine. I’ll be a part of your petty little group.” snapped Burt. Reginald and Right smirked. “Excellent.” said Right. Your first task is to keep your friend at your house. We need him to be silent for the next few days for what we have planned.” Reginald picked Dave up from the bed in the bedroom, but ended up falling down and dropping Dave going down the stairs. “God damn, how heavy is this kid?!” Reginald shouted as he got up and dusted his pants off. Dave woke up and started panicking and screaming, but his arms and legs were tied together and he had a towel stuffed in his mouth. Burt rolled his eyes. “Wow Reggie. Didn’t know you were into that.” Reginald snapped. “Shut up or I’ll plant one between your eyes!” Burt stopped and walked over to pick up Dave. Dave was lighter than Burt expected, Reginald just doesn’t lift. Right spoke up. “At the least keep him in your basement for 3 days. At the most, we’re going to need a week. Do not feed him or give him any water.” Burt’s eyes widened. “Are you going to stoop that low? You want me to starve this kid for a week?” Right and Reginald reached into their pockets, signaling to Burt he should shut up. Burt took Dave and walked away.

Later on in the day, around 8 in the morning, the kids were putting everything away and getting ready to go home. They had to cross a wooden bridge across a lake. It was a bit scary, but it was short. Some of the kids felt something was off, but didn’t care to speak up that 2 kids were missing. 2 kids no one even cared about. Burt had just come to the school and Dave? No one really cared for him except for the Bukowski Twins and his best friend Rupert. The twins were too busy taking turns giving each other a piggyback ride across the bridge, alternating half way. Rupert would have noticed, but he couldn’t attend because he had a nasty cold. 

With Charles’ personality, you’d expect him to be the one too scared to cross the bridge, right? Well, it was Henry who was holding him and Charles back. His legs were actually shaking at the thought of crossing this rickety rope wooden bridge. All the kids and the teacher waited on the other side. Charles wasn’t going to wait forever for Henry to take a first step, so he bent over, picked up Henry, and carried him across the bridge, bridal style. Who knew this kid was strong? Henry being extremely light and skinny helped too, but most kids Charles’ age wouldn’t be able to carry another kid. He must have been working out in practice for the school’s football game in 3 weeks. Man, this school sure had a lot of events going on.

Meanwhile, with Dave and Burt, Burt set Dave down on his couch, took the towel out of his mouth, and untied his arms and legs. “Ahh, thank you so much!” Dave said. “Y-You’re not really going to hurt me, are you?” Burt shook his head. “No, why would I?” Dave whimpered a bit. “I told you not to get involved with those kids! I said they were trouble! Why didn’t you listen.” Burt sighed. “David, I’m sorry. I should have listened to you… but I didn’t and now we’re both stuck in this mess.” Dave looked down. “It’s fine. I shouldn’t have told you that first thing. I should have let you adjust to the school first. The Toppats usually bully every new student that comes here and I… was just worried they’d do something to you.” Burt pat Dave’s shoulder. “Look buddy, I used to go to a school in Los Angeles, so if you think I’m unable to physically defend myself, you’re wrong.” Dave chuckled a bit. “I should have thought…” Burt thought for a minute. “They probably know where I live, the toppats… I-If they come, just… please pretend I’ve been torturing you. I’m going to take care of you. I will need to keep you in my basement though because my parents would KILL me if they find out I have a kid held hostage here.” Dave nodded “As long as you’re not  _ actually _ going to hurt me, then you have a deal.” Burt smiled. “Ah yes, thank you! Hopefully they’ll believe us, they seem to use brawn over brains” Dave laughed hearing that. “Yeah, they really do!” Burt walked down to the basement with Dave and pulled out his phone to use as a light. “There should be a mattress around here somewhere. The basement is pretty empty, so don’t worry!” They wound a dirty, but usable mattress laying flat in the basement. Dave plopped down on it. “Ohhh boy, I really could use some shut eye.” Burt yawned “Yeah, me too.” Burt turned his flashlight off and turned on the basement light. It was dusty, but at least there were no rodents or roaches. Burt took out a pen and a piece of paper. “So” he began. “What toppings do you want on the pizza later?”

The school bus was driving through the city, dropping off each student. Henry and Charles were still on the bus, not being dropped off yet. Henry was still a bit tired. He didn’t get too much sleep last night. He rested his head on Charles’ shoulder. Charles surprisingly didn’t notice. He had his headphones on and he was listening to some music. He must have been completely zoned out. The bus stopped at Charles' house. Henry nudged Charles a bit and pointed to his house. Charles snapped out of whatever trance he was in and looked to where Henry was pointing. “Hm?... Oh!” Charles quickly grabbed his bags and rushed right off the bus. “See ya, Henry!” he shouted. Henry waved goodbye as the bus closed its doors and drove off. Next stop, Henry’s house.


	11. Here's Your Hat!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reginald and Right Hand Man go to give Burt his hat.

Dave laughed as he took a bite out of his slice of pizza. “Wow, he really did that?” Burt chuckled under his breath “Yeah, my brother can be so stupid sometimes!” They were talking about the stupid messes their siblings would constantly get into. Such as when Dave’s little sister tried to jump in their pool but completely missed and hit the grass instead. Or when Toby, Burt’s older brother, thought he could fly with cardboard wings, but ended up needing to go to the hospital for an ankle fracture. The doorbell rang. Burt raised an eyebrow "... stay here, David. If its those guys, then I'll let you know, you'll need to dispose of some things and act out." Dave nodded, as he grabbed the pizza box and threw it all the way to the other side of the basement. Burt ran up the stairs and opened his door. There was Reginald and Right, who was holding a top hat in his hands. “Hey there, Bart” said Reginald. Burt scoffed. “It’s Burt, but whatever.” Right handed Burt the top hat. “We forgot to give you your hat when we recruited ya yesterday, so here you go.” Burt took the hat out of Right’s hands, inspected it, and placed it on his head. Reginald nodded “Good on ya, good on ya!” Burt began to close his door. Right put his foot in the way “Wait just a second. We wanna see Mr. Pretty boy down in your basement” Burt’s eyes widened. “I… think he’s asleep, lemme go check.” Burt closed his door and ran down to his basement, leaving Right and Reginald to eye each other with confusion.

Dave sat on the bed, singing to a rhythm he had created by patting his hands on his lap. “Dave” Burt said. “They’re coming down, I suggest you do something to make them eat up our story.” Burt rushd back up, assuring himself Dave would listen. While Burt was upstairs, bringing his 2 peers down to the basement, Dave took some of the tomato sauce from the pizza and made it look like he had a bloody nose and some other bloody areas. He rushed to lay on the bed, and managed to tie this hands together with the sheet. Burt walked down with Right and Reginald. “See? He’s there… haven’t been doing anything to him. Dave played along, acting like he was hurt and starved. “Heh, you’re quite great at this hostage thing.” Reginald said. “Yeah, keep up the great work… and as for you, pretty boy. I suggest you keep your mouth shut about everything when you get outta here! Dave nodded frantically. “Well, I think you guys should get going, I… have homework.” Burt said. Right and Reggie looked at each other and nodded as they made their way up the stairs. As soon as they lest, Dave wiped the tomato sauce off of his face. Burt smiled at him. “Heh, you’re great at acting.” Dave gave him a smile back. “Thanks!”

Dave searched in his pants pockets for his cellphone, but it was confiscated from him. “Hey uhh, Burt?” Burt took Dave’s phone out of his own pocket. It was given to him when Reginald took it off from Dave. “Way ahead of you.” Dave smiled and took the phone ”Thank you!” Dave walked away to the corner of the room, and dialed a number. It rang, and he waited for the other end to pick up. A cough and sniffle was heard from the other end. Dave was greeted by a raspy British voice.

“Oi, who’s callin’?” asked the person. “Hey, Rupert. It’s Dave.” Dave responded. Him and Rupert were very close best friends. How could Rupert not have Dave’s contact? “I just… wanted to check in and see how your cold was. You know? Just… Just to check up on ya, you know?... you-you haven’t come to school in 2 days.” Rupert laughed a small bit. “I’m gettin’ better, don’t worry about it.” Dave sighed of relief and also let out a small laugh. “Okay good, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t need anything because uh. I’m uh… I’m gonna be outta town for the week!” Rupert scoffed “Oh, you lucky twat. Where ya off to?” Dave quickly tried to come up with an answer. “I’m uh. I’m headed to San Francisco” Rupert coughed “Oh, I heard it’s lovely up there, innit?” Dave looked around, “Uhh, yeah. It’s very lovely.” Rupert blew his nose. “Well, don’t let me stop ya from enjoying yer vacation Davey. Hope you have lotsa fun!” said Rupert. Dave smiled “Thanks, talk to you later!” he hung up the cellphone, and let out a sigh of relief. He felt better knowing his best friend was doing okay.

Meanwhile, with our 2 lovebirds, they decided to go to this new cafe that just opened. It was a little date, with Ellie third wheeling.

Henry had ordered a coffee with parfait while Charles got hot chocolate with 2 donuts. Ellie wasn’t hungry, so she had sweet tea. Henry thought it would be… ahem… “romantic” to throw bits of his food at Charles’ face. It wasn’t romantic. It was just flat out messy. Charles began doing the same thing with his food. They were giving their food to each other. Ellie just sat and rolled her eyes. “You 2 eat like pigs” she scoffed playfully. “Oh be quiet.” snapped Henry. “It’s romantic.” Ellie looked at the frosting, donut sprinkles, and ice cream splattered on the table and on both of the boys’ faces and clothing. Henry started to laugh. Then so did Charles. Soon enough, all 3 of them were laughing their asses off. “Okay” said Ellie as she caught her breath. “I guess it is a bit romantic”

“So why exactly are we spending nearly a week doing this?” said Sven as he held red tape in his hands. He had gotten out of the hospital only a few hours ago. Right was busy trying his best to peel off the red tape on the bowling floors. “Because security is tight in here. If there are 20 lanes, and we can only do at the most 4 a night-” he was cut off by Reginald. “Oh my god, Shut up. We’re here to sabotage. Not do math.” The first 12 bowling lanes in the big building looked different from the rest. The difference? Sven, Right, and Reginald were removing the “do not cross” tape from the lanes and replacing them, but instead, putting them closer in the lanes. With the intention, at the least one, at the most all, of the kids will slip and fall during their bowling game next week. A slip and fall in the bowling lane hurts a lot, it can even sprain your ankle. This “stunt” these 3 kids were pulling off wasn’t as big as they made Burt think, but they still thought “it might be pretty funny” Sven held the tape, Right removed and replaced, and Reginald was on look out. Their task should be finished in no less than 2 more days. Which would be just in time.

  
  



End file.
